Contemporary selective call receiver communication systems employ messaging schemes that can deliver voice, numeric, or alphanumeric messages to its user. The majority of selective call systems transmit address and message information using a protocol such as GSC (Motorola's Golay Sequential Code), POCSAG (Great Britain's Post Office Code Standardization Advisory Group) or FLEX.TM.. To originate a message or page, a base station (or selective call terminal) is typically accessed via a Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) from a telephone.
In the case of transmission of facsimile type messages to selective call receivers, the information is scanned in by facsimile machine, transferred and processed by the selective call system, and then transmitted to a selective call receiver designated by the address. Unfortunately, the transmission of FAX information results in a large amount of information being processed by the selective call messaging (paging) systems, and the data transport protocols do not gracefully allow for the transmission of large amounts of information. As is well known, selective call receivers are powered by limited energy content battery supplies that are quickly degraded when receiving and displaying long messages.
One area of growing concern is the ability to send a handwritten message via a facsimile machine to a wireline device, for example, selective call receivers. While contemporary facsimile communication equipment employ data compression techniques in their coding formats, such data compression techniques are inadequate for adequately preserving the battery life of the selective call receivers. Furthermore, the long data messages indicative of facsimile communication destroy the battery saving schemes currently being employed with selective call communication systems, because the long textual messages require the information to be fragmented and then transmitted to the selective call receivers. This degradation in battery life of the selective call receiver makes facsimile communication unattractive to the users of selective call receivers even though the need exists.
Other areas of growing concern include the fact that as more subscribers use this technology, throughput must be increased and the use of the available frequency spectrum must be maximized. Contemporary data-compression techniques are increasingly inadequate to achieve the necessary throughput and maximization of use of frequency spectrum to accommodate the increasing number of users.
Thus, what is needed is a method and apparatus, in a selective call communication system, for providing facsimile communication of handwritten textual messages to selective call receivers without severely destroying their battery lives. What is also needed is a method and apparatus, in a selective call communication system, for providing such facsimile communication in a manner which maximizes throughput and maximizes use of the available frequency spectrum.